Album Review

The holiday season seems to arrive a little bit earlier each year; before you know it, we'll be decorating our pumpkins in garland and dressing our scarecrows in Santa suits. And for the music critic, Christmas comes even sooner thanks to an annual deluge of holiday albums released before the leaves have even turned, our plight eclipsed only by the poor studio engineers forced to endure an artist's newly recorded contributions to the bottomless canon of predictable yuletide chestnuts during the sweltering doldrums of summer.

Thankfully, much of Kelly Clarkson's first holiday album, Wrapped in Red, makes a grinch's job a little less arduous. It's a surprisingly secular effort for a singer who prides herself on being a good Southern Christian, with the only mentions of Jesus coming during a country-inflected rendition of the obligatory "Silent Night," featuring Clarkson's buddies Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood, and the understated "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," relegated to the Target edition of the album. Clarkson agilely rips through a series of nonreligious standards and original tunes, as well as a cover of Imogen Heap's "Just for Now," whose reference to "that time of year" appears to be the sole justification, lyrical or otherwise, for its inclusion.

While Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph" gives Clarkson an excuse to rock out, and thus sticks out like a glowing red nose on a snowy night, Wrapped in Red largely offers a respite from the pop-rock template she's been relentlessly pursuing since Breakaway, with less shouting and more of the varied range and texture on full display that helped coronate her the winner of the inaugural season of American Idol. For better or worse, a decade of recording and touring has roughed up the edges of her voice, lending a lived-in quality that imbues lyrics about love and longing with an authenticity that might have otherwise been missing had she recorded these songs just a few years earlier.

Of the classics, the orchestral "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a highlight, marred only by a showy octave leap at the song's climax. But it's the five new compositions, all co-written by Clarkson, that elevate Wrapped in Red above just another holiday-industrial-complex cash-in. Though the bouncy "Winter Dreams (Brandon's Song)" borders on a commercial jingle, it's ultimately a sweet (but not too saccharine) tribute to her new husband, while the "Santa Baby"-by-way-of-"Since U Been Gone" rocker "4 Carats" provides a modern update on the proverbial Christmas-list song. Any of these, as well as the retro title track, would make welcome additions to shopping-mall playlists, but it's the album's lead single, "Underneath the Tree," which recalls Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in theme, tone, and structure, that's likely to become Clarkson's very own contemporary standard.

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Three stars? Wrong. At least 4 1/2. One of the best christmas releases ever. Not a dog on the disc.

Posted by Nelson on 2015-02-27 02:31:52

Not in October. (Unless you believe the Devil is made out of paper and plastic.)

Posted by No-Personality on 2013-10-30 16:21:15

Best Christmas album ever. Your review is missing another star. Should be rated as 4.5 or 5 stars!!!!! Kelly's voice is a gift from God!!!!!

Posted by chris on 2013-10-27 16:31:27

I like "Underneath the Tree". Though it reminds me of Mariah's, it still has a force of its own thanks to Kelly's insane voice and it does its primary job well --- to share a joy of Christmas through song (and collect some coins along the way). After all, there is nothing truly novel in existence. Every new idea has some sort of precedent or an echo from the past. So I'm not disappointed with Kelly. Besides, there are other original songs to dive in with. All of them are actually quite good. What to me are best part are the cover of "Just for Now", which totally different from Imogen's version itself, alongside the hauntingly beautiful "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel". The weakest link is the "Silent Night", which Reba destroyed the momentum of the harmony for being in the lead (but then again, how can she sing a different key when Kelly and Trisha are the sopranos). Actually, the whole album itself presents a new side of Kelly that we haven't heard for a long time. Which makes one think --- Why does her label keep pushing her to pop rock and country when she could have every genre in one album? I wouldn't mind a non-Christmas version of Wrapped in Red for her next album if it means she will explore soul, big band, and other genres apart from pop and country. A voice like that doesn't come every generation.

Posted by PandaPo on 2013-10-23 17:32:33

I'm still hoping this turns out to be a keeper, but I found "Underneath the Tree" to be a huge disappointment. It's just too similar to Mariah's classic: like you said, the "theme, tone, and structure" all scream "re-write," to the extent that there's no choice but to compare the two songs. Overall, Kelly's voice and singing style is more to my taste than Mariah's, but I'd still say the comparison doesn't flatter Kelly's song. A lot of what I find compelling in her voice - particularly the searing, intense delivery she's capable of when she flips into her upper register - gets lost in the fourthand Phil Spector production, and the lyrics are too light for a diva that does better when she can inject some real drama. I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather have her "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" rather than her "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Or she could've just taken a note from Cee-Lo and covered "All I Want for Christmas is You."